Wednesday, March 16, 2011

In the evacuation centre inside Yamagata stadium, every new arrival is scanned for exposure to radiation with a Geiger counter. Only then are they given a new home on the hard wooden floors of the basketball court.

The stadium is a small city of refugees, many of whom have fled the 20km exclusion zone that surrounds the Fukushima nuclear plant.

As Japan's nuclear crisis has worsened, the authorities have gradually extended the compulsory evacuation area from an initial 3km radius to 10km, and now the present limit.

Beyond that, the Japanese government insists there is no threat to human health.

The camp is well supplied with blankets, floor mats and food - though the Japanese media have reported other refugee centres are running short of basis necessities.

Elsewhere in quake-hit Japan, residents are doing without heating, electricity and running water.